Bayern Munich has the best expectations for the title

February 14 marked the end of a three-month wait since the last time the Champions League appeared. A longer than usual mid-season break due to the World Cup in Qatar.

The round of 16 is in its first leg, in which the following will participate: Real Madrid, Bruges, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Naples, PSG, Benfica, Chelsea, Liverpool, Porto, Inter Milan, Tottenham, Eintracht Frankfurt, Leipzig , Milan and Bayern Munich.

FiveThirtyEight’s prediction model points out that Bayern Munich is the favorite to win the competition, beating Manchester City, Real Madrid and Napoli.

Things are looking good for Bayern, who lost just once all season (1-0 at Augsburg in September) and won all six games to climb through a Champions League group that includes Inter Milan and Barcelona. They also scored the second most goals (18, after Napoli’s 20) and conceded the joint fewest (two, along with Manchester City) while keeping clean sheets (five) in the group stage.

The first step in the round of 16 was taken by Bayern Munich, who beat PSG 1-0 with a goal from Kingsley Coman, who will have to go to Germany to reverse the defeat.

Only the departure of Kylian Mbappé, miraculously recovered from injury a week ahead of schedule, seemed to give encouragement to the French, who can hold on to the strength of their number 7 for any hope of qualifying. The French forward revolutionized his team, had two good chances, scored a goal disallowed by VAR for offside and allowed Leo Messi to have a great chance that Benjamin Pavard deflected.

The Germans managed to survive Hurricane Mbappé and take a victory from the Parque de los Príncipes that leaves them in a good position to reach the quarterfinals for the tenth time in the last eleven years.

Bayern went to the locker room with nine shots in their favor and only one against, PSG’s worst offensive first half in Europe since 2016. PSG, the biggest team in France (these days) has never won the Champions League and, In other words, it would be a bit absurd for a team with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé on the first line to continue to fall short.

deportes@eleconomista.mx